


Across a Barren Plain

by divapilot



Category: Star Wars - All Media Types, Star Wars Episode VII: The Force Awakens (2015)
Genre: Jakku, Origin Story, implied Luke Skywalker
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-07-17
Updated: 2015-07-17
Packaged: 2018-04-09 18:16:40
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,162
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/4359302
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/divapilot/pseuds/divapilot
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Rey's mother finds solace in desolation</p>
            </blockquote>





	Across a Barren Plain

The knock came in the dark, early hours, well before dawn; an insistent pounding on the metal door corroded by years of blasting winds. Seth Tage rose slowly and with trepidation. Nothing good arrived unheralded in the black of night. He pulled on his shirt and shuffled to the doorway, then checked the security recorder. 

Seth stared for a moment at the figure standing anxiously outside. Then, with a huff and shake of his grizzled head, he unlocked the portal and the heavy metal door slid open.  
A woman entered, dressed in loose brown traveling clothing. A tan scarf wrapped around her head and the lower part of her face protected her from the inhospitable environment. She stepped inside the small home and pulled the scarf down, revealing her face.

“So you’re back,” Seth grumbled.

She unwound the scarf and shook the dust off of it. The woman, about twenty-five years old, was tall, brown haired, and could have been pretty at one point. But there was a hardness that had carved its way into her features, a brittleness amplified by the ragged scar that ran across the right side of her face. 

Seth snorted as he watched her take off the loose jacket. She was clearly in the last stages of pregnancy. He began to formulate a question, then thought better of it. “You hungry?” he asked instead.

She nodded, then sat wearily at his small table. Seth disappeared for a moment then returned with a warm bowl of stew, which she ate ravenously. It was clear that she had not eaten in a while. Seth sat back, his elbow on the table and his fingers against his white-haired temple, and studied her. “So how long are you going to be here at Settlement, Takira?” he asked, after a long pause.

Takira wiped her mouth with the sleeve of her shirt. “I don’t know.”

“Are you in trouble?”

“What do you think? I came to Jakku for a holiday?” She raised her eyes to him as her hand went to her belly. “I need a place to stay for a while. Can you help me, Uncle Seth?”

He said nothing at first. “What happened to your face?”

She looked away.

Seth stared at his niece as if assessing her. “All right, then, what happened to your parents?” he asked, finally.

She lifted her bowl to scrape the remnants of the food onto her spoon, closing her eyes as she ate the last of the stew. Then she placed the bowl and the spoon on the table. “I don’t know. We got separated in one of the clean-outs. I haven’t seen them in two years.”

Seth grunted. “I always knew she would wind up like that. Bleedin’ heart, that one. Always gonna save the galaxy. Damn fool.”

“That’s my mother you’re talking about.”

“And my sister. That don’t make her less of a damn fool.”

Takira started to say something then checked herself. “Can I stay, Uncle Seth? You’re the only family I got now.”

The old man sighed as he took her bowl and spoon. He went into the kitchen. “Can you cook?” he called from the other room.

“Of course,” she lied.

He came back and stood in the doorway, his hand fisted on his hip. “I could use a hand at the cantina. Nothin’ fancy. Just serving to miners and scavengers.”

“I don’t care what it pays. I’ll take it.”

“Who said it pays?”

Takira bowed her head, placed one hand on her thigh and the other on her belly. 

“So I’m guessing there’s no chance the father of that …child is gonna be any help to us?” Seth said, phrasing the statement as an inquiry.

She rose as abruptly as her state allowed. “No.” 

“I don’t suppose you want to tell me—“

She arched her back and stared him in the eye. “He was a pilot. The best pilot I’ve ever seen. The best pilot anyone has ever seen. We were in the same squadron. We were together for about four months before we flew the offensive over Corellia.”

Seth grunted. There was no need to explain more; that disaster for the Rebel Alliance was legendary. Flush from their victories over the Emperor, they had become as arrogant as the Republic Jedi that the Empire displaced. They had sorely underestimated the desire of the Moff Collective to retain their own power. After the Corellia debacle, the Alliance had all but collapsed, their remnants scattered and driven into hiding.

“Did you get hit?” he asked, gesturing to the scars that ribboned her cheek. She raised her hand to cover the marks.

“I was in the rear of the assault so I got out alive. But not before I took a hit.” Not before she saw the sparks of the Commander’s x-wing as it burst into flame and dove in a twisting pirouette toward the planet and vanish into the clouds below. 

Seth stared at her a moment, reading her subtle expression. “He went down, didn’t he.” This time his statement was an inquiry. 

She nodded imperceptibly. “He was a good man, an amazing man. He could do things that were incredible. It was like he could see right into your soul and read your deepest thoughts.” They had been first attracted by mutual respect for each other’s flying skills. Admiration had turned to friendship, then into something more. They had given into the desperate need for something of beauty and value among the grease and stench of fuel; something sacred and life-affirming to be found in the seam between battles and death.  
She looked at him again. “He disappeared that day. His x-wing wreckage was positively identified but his body was never found.” Her voice dropped to a near-whisper. “I didn’t even have a body to bury.”

Seth sighed deeply, then placed his hand on his niece’s shoulder. “Stay as long as you need to. Get back on your feet. Ain’t much of a place to raise a kid, though; keep that in mind.” 

“Thanks.” She began to gather her dusty outer clothing and slung her satchel across her shoulder. “I’ll stay in the back room behind the cantina. That way the baby won’t bother you, once she’s born.” 

“A girl, huh?”

She smiled slightly at last, a smile edged in sadness. “Yeah.”

“You got a name for her yet?”

She looked at her belly, rubbed her hand across its taut skin, and felt the fluttering movement beneath. “Erirey. It means ‘promise.’”

“Erirey,” he repeated, nodding approval. “You realize everyone will call her Rey, for short.”

“I know.”

She looked outside the grimy window. Rey. It was appropriate; the baby’s father’s name had meant “light.” Rey, like Ray. A Ray of Light. The one bright ray left in the bone-barren plain of her life.

Takira picked up her meager possessions and headed toward the adjoining building to settle into the bleak, dusty world that would be her new home.


End file.
